Salespeople ask marketing to do a LOT of things that — from a marketer’s perspective — make little sense. Here are some of the most common ones. I’ve also included reasons why you should NEVER ask people on your marketing team to do them.
Tip: Marketers, share this list with your sales reps. It will educate them about how to work more effectively with the people on your team.
Ask marketers to make your sales presentation look pretty
Of course, delivering attractive professional presentations leaves prospective clients with a positive impression of your brand. However, it’s more critical that your sales support materials speak to the needs of prospects in ways they are able to understand.
Next time, ask marketers to review your presentations. Have them make recommendations about how to make them more effective, instead of attractive. This will give them the freedom to use ALL their marketing and sales knowledge, along with their creative skills, to optimize them.
Tip: A sales enablement system allows marketers to track the effectiveness of sales support materials in real-time. They can improve them on an ongoing basis.
Request that marketers sponsor a favorite charity event
Giving to charity is always a good thing. However, it isn’t necessarily a sound business decision.
If your business decides to sponsor a charity, it should align with your brand and support your marketing efforts. Otherwise, it’s not a marketing initiative. It’s a charitable donation.
Make marketers respond to last-minute RFPs
It’s obvious when you rush RFPs, writing them at the last minute. It’s rare for last-minute RFPs to turn into actual opportunities. That’s because there’s not enough time to fully think them through.
Figure out how long it takes to develop high-quality RFPs. Give marketers adequate time to respond to them. When it comes to closing deals, quality always beats speed. Submitting fewer, fully-thought-through RFPs will generate better results over the long term.
Tip: Mobile Locker’s sales enablement system makes it easy to find individual marketing components and combine them together into RFPs and other types of sales presentations.
Ask marketing to manage an event with no defined goals
Salespeople often ask marketers to manage trade shows and other events. However, they provide no clearly defined reasons for participating or goals they want to achieve. This makes it impossible to develop booth experiences and breakout events that resonate with attendees and lead to sales.
Next time, partner with your marketing team. Identify target audiences, set sales goals and come up with strategies. This could include participating in trade shows, if appropriate, that will help achieve them.
Did you know: Mobile Locker works with marketers to develop interactive booth experiences that resonate with trade show attendees?
Ask a marketing pro to clean up client data
Today’s advanced CRM systems make it easy to capture and maintain information about clients and prospects. There should NEVER be a need for a wholesale clean-up.
Instead, work with your sales team to develop processes and procedures. They should ensure data is input accurately and updated over time.
Make the marketing team develop a better-looking website
While website trends are constantly evolving, design shouldn’t be the primary driver of development.
Instead, start by determining what you need your website to do. Once you’ve done that, marketing can structure its design to support the required functionality while delivering an optimal user experience and effectively representing the brand.
Tip: Make sure the site is fully optimized for search engines.
Ask marketing to rebrand your business because “it’s time”
Consumers develop trust with brands over time. They respond to consistent and familiar messages, images, a logo, color palette, typefaces and more. Only compromise this familiarity, comfort level and trust if you’re trying to make a statement. Good reasons for rebranding include entering a new business, offering a different line of products or services or merging with another firm.
Tip: Your brand is the most valuable asset of your business. Never treat it lightly.
Request that marketing undertake a brand study
The first thing many people do when sales fall or goals aren’t reached is blame the branding. Rather than request a brand review, businesses should look for the root causes of the problems they face. A brand review should always be a last resort.
Make them develop a marketing campaign not supported by proof
If you can’t support a marketing effort with clear and demonstrable proof points, it will all fall apart during the sales process. Buyers will be able to poke holes into your claims because sales reps will be unable to support them.
Force marketers to get your clients tickets
Tickets are a nice gesture. But if they’re not tied to broader sales and marketing efforts, they’re worthless.
Marketers and sales leadership should set rules around supplying reps with tickets. They should also provide clear expectations for what should happen when reps attend events with prospects and clients. This includes where in the sales process tickets should be offered, the value of prospective sales that earn them and expected outcomes.
Did you know: Mobile Locker’s sales enablement system helps businesses develop and implement end-to-end sales strategies and deliver everything needed to support them every step of the way?
